A ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) code identifies a specific geographic area for postal delivery in the United States. Before ZIP codes were implemented in 1963, two-digit “zones” were used. The U.S. Postal Service first sorted mail by state, then by city, then by zone, then by street address. ZIP codes were implemented by adding three additional digits representing the state and city in front of the two-digit zones. With the five-digit ZIP code, postal employees no longer needed to read the text containing the state and the city in order to sort mail.
In 1983, the “ZIP-plus-four” concept was introduced. The basic five-digit ZIP code remained, but another four-digit number was added to the end of the original five-digit ZIP code. The additional four digit number can represent a specific city block, a specific building, or even one or more specific floors in a large building. The additional four-digit number helps the U.S. Postal Service route mail more efficiently and accurately because it reduces handling and decreases the potential for human error. Thus ZIP-plus-four leads to better control over U.S. Postal Service costs and, in turn, postage rate stability. The ZIP-plus-four was originally intended for use by business mailers who then typically prepared mail with typewritten or machine-printed addresses. As a result, the U.S. Postal Service began requiring bulk mail to have the ZIP-plus-four code. In order to avail the general public of a simple means of obtaining the ZIP-plus-four, the U.S. Postal Service began a ZIP-plus-four look-up system on its Internet website. However, even with this information readily available, the average American citizen still does not typically use the ZIP-plus-four code for non-bulk mailings.
To further reduce handling and decrease the potential for human error, the U.S. Postal Service also moved toward automated reading and sorting. Addresses on mail are scanned and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) equipment converts images of the typewritten or printed text of the addresses into machine-encoded text which is used by automated equipment to sort the mail. However, OCR equipment is not perfect in reading human-readable text, particularly hand written text which is messy or strays too far from standard form. This can lead to the equipment reading an incorrect address and misdirecting of the mail and/or the need for human intervention to manually read and place a machine-readable code onto the mail so that it can be properly sorted and delivered.
To decrease the potential for OCR error, mail can be provided with machine-readable code or codes such as, for example, barcodes which contain ZIP code and/or final destination information. The machine-readable codes are read by automated equipment with a lower error rate than human-readable text. The U.S. Postal Service has adopted the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IM barcode) which is a 65-bar code for use on mail in the United States. The IM barcode contains the ZIP-plus-four code, an additional two digits used to indicate the exact final destination or delivery point (DP), as well as tracking and other information. Note that every single DP in the U.S. should have its own unique 11-digit number. These two additional digits are usually the last two digits of the street address or box number, though non-numeric points with names or letters are assigned DP numbers by the local U.S. post office. The IM barcode enables the U.S. Postal Service to provide improved deliverability and tracking of domestic mail and improves overall efficiency.
Barcodes representing the DP are often manually affixed to mail by postal workers when the automated equipment fails to read the text of the address and the IM barcodes were not provided by the sender in addition to the human-readable text of the address. Senders of bulk mail in the U.S. receive a discount on postage if they provide a preprinted IM barcode on the bulk mail. However, no such discount is provided to senders of non-bulk mail. Additionally, the average American does not have the equipment and/or information to include a preprinted IM barcode on their non-bulk mail and even when they do, it can be inconvenient. As a result, most non-bulk mail in the U.S. does not include an IM barcode or any other kind of machine-readable code provided by the sender and the U.S. Postal Service cannot obtain the full benefit of its automated systems when the OCR equipment fails.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for providing machine-readable destination information on mail, particularly non-bulk mail sent by the general public.